Photo: Joe Shine for The Jersey Journal
Last week, a man from Jersey City, New Jersey was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child after his 6-year-old daughter was found in a locked SUV parked outside Saint Peter’s University.
Police determined that the girl had spent about 9 hours in the locked car, from 1 a.m. until 10 o’clock the next day, when someone from the university saw her inside and called 911. The father, Zakaria Moustafa, was charged after he was seen on surveillance video getting out of the vehicle and locking it.
Now, his other daughter, 17-year-old Rawan Moustafa, is speaking out in his defense. In a short statement to NJ.com, the teen says that this was just an honest mistake and that their father shouldn’t be punished for it. She says they got home late at night and parked near the University, as they always do, because the walk home is short.
She recalls her younger sister coming out of the car with them, but assumes the girl returned because she was tired. Rawan and her father got home and went to bed, and thought that the girl went to sleep on the couch, as she would do on occasion.
They had no idea the girl had been locked in the car, Rawan says. In fact, they only found out about it when they woke up with the police at their door.
As for suggestions that this was her father’s way of punishing the girl, Rawan rubbishes such talk. “It sounds crazy to even think that a father would discipline a child by locking them in a car while it’s hot outside,” she tells the publication.
This was an honest mistake and should be treated as such, Rawan believes. That entails letting her father off the hook by having the charges against him dismissed.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Rawan says. “It was all an accident... We’re not the type of people to harm anyone.”
After she was discovered in the car, the girl was taken to the hospital and released right away. She was allowed to go home, but her father is barred from any contact with her until July 15, when he’s due back in court.
Now, his other daughter, 17-year-old Rawan Moustafa, is speaking out in his defense. In a short statement to NJ.com, the teen says that this was just an honest mistake and that their father shouldn’t be punished for it. She says they got home late at night and parked near the University, as they always do, because the walk home is short.
She recalls her younger sister coming out of the car with them, but assumes the girl returned because she was tired. Rawan and her father got home and went to bed, and thought that the girl went to sleep on the couch, as she would do on occasion.
They had no idea the girl had been locked in the car, Rawan says. In fact, they only found out about it when they woke up with the police at their door.
As for suggestions that this was her father’s way of punishing the girl, Rawan rubbishes such talk. “It sounds crazy to even think that a father would discipline a child by locking them in a car while it’s hot outside,” she tells the publication.
This was an honest mistake and should be treated as such, Rawan believes. That entails letting her father off the hook by having the charges against him dismissed.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Rawan says. “It was all an accident... We’re not the type of people to harm anyone.”
After she was discovered in the car, the girl was taken to the hospital and released right away. She was allowed to go home, but her father is barred from any contact with her until July 15, when he’s due back in court.
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